Abstract

In this article, Raphaël Larrère compares Agrostis, a genetically modified plant, and Lucifer, a clone of a bull. Based on these two examples, he reflects on the sociological and philosophical consequences of the introduction of artificial components into our environment. What both of these examples share is the belief in the Promethean power of genetic engineering. The border between nature and artifice is fading away, but a radical difference remains : the creation of a plant organism raises the issue of the risk of proliferation and inopportune interaction with other ecosystems, and thus the principle of precaution, whereas the creation of an animal, a being with feelings, is an ethical or moral issue : it involves a decision on the life or death of a living being. If one denies the ethical dimension of these questions, one gives free rein to the monopolistic projects of global agro-business, or the Pentagon’s Promethean rhetoric of the « creation » of the soldier